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I just checked the post from last year and I could actually copy and paste the first sentence to start this post:

I am a little late this year, especially because we had our main Christmas celebration already Christmas Eve…

AND Somehow I am even later this year… BUT here I am :) Each year we have a different Christmas theme with certain colors, patterns and designs, which usually starts with an inspiration or idea and evolves into a theme… Last year we used pink, green and golden hues. Here is the post:

Even though my favorite color is pink and I would love to use it every year, it is so much fun to use different themes and colors and to create a different Christmas magic year after year… I love Christmas! The theme this year was ice and snow in blue, white and silver. Very fitting for Miami, ;)

It started with the Adventskalender (I made an icy winter village at night and Eva a blue Christmas tree tower, as you can see in one of the pictures below) and the entire house was decorated and got a wintery makeover. We bought blue lights and blue ornaments for the Christmas tree and together with the icicles and jewels I already had, the tree sparkled. We used fake snow and all kind of wintery decoration for the table. My favorite decoration would be the small vintage ornaments in blue and silver hanging on the lamp and are scattered over the table. They are so pretty. AND the backdrop we used on the wall. It is a little shiny on the pictures, but (still) looks awesome next to the table. It is a huge window with a winter scene, lots of snow and ice as well as a deer. This really transformed the table…

It was exactly like I imagined it and I have lots of sweet memories about this holiday season. This is what makes me happy! Spending quality time with the family and friends we love, baking, crafting, ice skating, decorating, making presents for each other (like a cookie checkers board for grandpa or a miniature Christmas tree for auntie), drinking hot chocolate, wrapping and decorating the presents and the crazy unwrapping frenzy, laughing, the elf, surprising each other, Adventskalender, Christmas music, singing and cooking are just a few of these memories we made….

It is my favorite holiday and I want to make each year extra special for the ones I love… I hope I could share some of our Christmas magic with you and give you a warm (or icy) holiday feeling or a smile. We wish you a never-ending season of Love, Peace and Happiness! Happy Holidays :)

And like last year we already know the theme for next year, which will be a more traditional, cozy and woodsy Christmas sweater theme in red and green. I can’t wait :) Too soon?

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For my husband’s birthday, we threw a “Casino Royal” party and created this set of photo booth props. The party was awesome and we are selling all kind of coordinating party supplies like favors, dice photo holders, garlands and banners etc. Here is a picture of the dessert table: Pic coming soon :)

BUT the main reason for our absence was our website. We have been planning and working on our new website with a STORE for months now. It takes a little longer than expected and I really wanted to write the blog directly from the website… but somehow we are still not there and rather than waiting any longer, I want to share our props, crafts and everything else again. I missed my blog, this is my baby. So goodbye summer, welcome fall :)

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Actually it is much better than a Teddy Bear Picnic…. Drumroll please: we celebrated the 4th birthday of one of our most favorite stuffed animal, Billy the Squirl.

Luca had the idea, because shortly before, we were celebrating the birthday of my husband and had a huge casino poker party. Luca had helped in some preparation for this party and saw us crafting, baking, making….. So about 5 days after the birthday bash for Chris, he announced that Billy was celebrating his birthday the following Saturday. I asked him what a great birthday party needs and he came up with (in his order)

1. Invitations

2. Cake

3. Party Hats

4. Presents

5. Balloons and a banner/decoration

We created a guest list, which included Mickey Mouse, Schafi, Hippo and some other friends, but was limited to 12 guests. We also invited a real friend and his stuffed animal to make the party even more fun.

Luca started to make the invitations. It was so much fun to see the enthusiasm he had making them. Because the Teddy Bear Picknick was part of the Summer Bucket List, it was the perfect match. Eva and I created a template for a garland, party hats, party signs and miniature cupcake topper, which is available for downloading. We wanted to make it simple enough that Luca could either make the decoration almost by himself or at least be able to help, because it was his party. The next several days, we worked on the party. One day, we made garlands, the next day packed presents and the day before the party we baked the cake. It was perfect, because the anticipation grew with each day and the projects were short enough to not lose interest after a while. We wrapped a small box of peanuts and Eva made some presents like an outfit, a backpack, a miniature notepad, a necklace (I think Billy is ready for school now) and wrapped them all in several little gifts. They looked so cute… Another great idea was the trail mix from Kian and doggy, Luca’s friend. The day of the party, Luca woke up extra early and could not wait to get started… He helped us to decorate and together with his brother, they brought all the birthday guests, the cake and the presents outside. It was time to get the party started…

INSTRUCTIONS:

You need:

Templates – cut out

colorful paper – we used different scrapbook paper in different colors and different patterns

Trace the template on different colors of paper and cut out. As more colors and patterns as more fun the garland will be You should have a nice stack. Take both ends of a strip and form a circle. Staple or glue the ends together. Take the next strip of paper through the first circle to connect them and form another circle. Tape or staple the ends together. Continue to get a long and pretty garland.

How to make the party pats:

Depending on the size of the stuffed animal or doll, trace one of the larger circle templates on colorful paper and cut out. Cut straight into the circle until the middle. Repeat and cut off about 1/3 of the circle (sorry, maybe the pics are clearer than my instructions :) ) Take the ends and form a party hat, secure with tape or glue. The stuffed animal gets his first fitting. To secure the strap, we hot glued a stretch cord to one side of the hat. Once it is dried, fit it again to get the correct size for the strap and hot glue the other end. Let it dry completely.

How to make the cake topper:

Trace the small circle template on colorful paper and cut out. You could also use a small circle punch. We cut a toothpick in half and glued them on the back of the circle. Stick them in frosted cupcakes or in small tea sandwiches.

How to make the birthday signs:

Trace both templates on different colored paper and cut them out. Glue the smaller square on top of the larger square and let them dry. We handwrote the signs, but I think it would be even cuter to use a spectacular font from your computer. If your children are big enough, they could write something inside as well.

Cake and More:

We used half a recipe for a small cake and had some leftovers, which I baked in a miniature muffin tin to serve as cupcakes.

To make it more festive, we blew up water balloons (which was too hard for Luca), and tied them together to make a garland. Luca helped us by taping them on the umbrella behind the picnic area. We first used a towel or a picnic blanket and covered it with colorful fabric samples to keep with the theme. We brought the guests, miniature cups and plates, the cake and cupcakes, the presents and extra balloons for the blanket outside and we were ready to party…

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I am sooooooooooooo excited to share these dice boxes, we have created for the royal casino party of my husband. They will be soon for sale at our etsy store as printable or ready made box with favor tag. I will post the link soon. Until then contact us at thepartyevent@gmail.com for prices, more information and other casino inspired decoration.

UPDATE: We had our party and everything looked spectacular. I finally had the time now to put the boxes in our etsy store. Here is the link:

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Check out our latest set of photo booth props. We created an Autism Awareness Photo Booth Prop Set, perfect for using at a fundraiser and to create awareness in general. When we started, we offered the set for free if you liked us on facebook. Because of privacy settings and other issues, we ended this promotion and have them and other awareness props now for sale in our etsy store:

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Recently we received a custom order for reunion photo booth props and here is the result. This was a fun set to work on especially for my sister, since she went to high school in the USA (I finished school in Germany). Together with the customer, we came up with some great ideas and got this amazing set. It can be customized with school colors, high school name and graduation year and will be the talk of any reunion. My favorite prop is the yearbook and the food tray…. Do you need custom photo booth props, just contact us at thepartyevent@gmail.com for prices and more information. You can order the reunion photo booth props here:

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One of our favorite party decorations are cupcake toppers. They make cupcakes or other food “instant-party ready”. Most of the parties we do, have a theme and the cupcake toppers are like the extra cherry on top…. Most of the time, we design the cupcake toppers and wrappers to go along with the theme. They just need to be cut out, glued together and they are ready to party….

Not all of our toppers are round, we like to use shapes, glitter and embellishments too. There are so many options. Some of my most favorite toppers we made are the ones for the French Chic Elegant wedding set. The way they sparkle, I love it….

Our next wedding set will be a pink rose set, which is already in the works. We have been busy creating and crafting things that go along with the theme…. One of the crafts, are coffee filter roses, which will also be featured in one of the next crafty Fridays. Because we had some dyed coffee filters leftovers in all hues of pink and some orang that we didn’t want to throw away, we came up with the confetti cupcake toppers. essentially it could be also done with tissue paper or any other kind of paper, but we wanted to use our leftovers.

This is a pretty fast craft, which is perfect for making with kids. It would be lovely to make some toppers for a birthday of someone special and to involve the kids this way.

We folded several layers (three) of coffee filters 3 times (as many times as you want to still be able to cut through) and fringed one end. The next step was to cut the fringes off to make small confetti pieces. The more shades of color, the prettier the confetti….

We started by adding glitter to the confetti to give it extra sparkle. Punch out circles with the circle punch or use a stencil and cut them out. Spread a thin layer of glue and dip the circle into the confetti. After the circles have dried, you might need to cut some extra confetti off. Glue the sticks on the back and let dry completely.

Voila, you just made a cupcake topper. They are pretty awesome like this, but we do like to embellish them even more and used crepe paper, diamonds, glitter, tulle and feathers to make them even more spectacular. We also wrapped the cupcakes in crepe paper for a quick and cute wrapper.

Do you like them, but don’t want to have the time or patience, we do sell these cupcake toppers here:

We wanted to feature this craft on the blog already for soooooooo long. We used several of the pom-pom garlands as backdrop for our Love and Hearts photo props and several birthday tables we did, like the girl birthday on the picture below…. one of my most favorite backdrops EVER!!!!!! So pretty…

Here is also the link to the Love props (red and pink pom-pom garland only):

a cardboard template – we used free paint chip samples from home depot

scissors

twine and/or ribbons

How-to:

We need to go to home depot quite often to buy colors for backdrops and other supplies. Most of the times with my children and they love the free paint chip samples. Even though they only get a few each time, we managed to have quite a collection, because I don’t to just throw them away. We came up with some crafts for them, but they can be used (and reused) for the pom poms as well. We just wrapped the tulle rolls around the paint chip samples about 15- 20 times (keep wrapping for a fuller pom-pom :) )

Cut the end off and remove the cardboard carefully. If you make a bunch of pom poms, I suggest making each step together for all the pom poms rather than going back and forth and finishing each pom-pom one by one. We had quite a stack of cardboard-tulle squares at one time… Pinch the sides together and tie with a ribbon or twine to make little bow ties.

Now cut the sides with a scissor and fluff to get the pom poms. We tied 10 different shades of colored pom poms to a ribbon to make a garland. The great thing about it, is that you can adjust the spacing of the pom poms in the end and voila, there is your finished garland.

Sorry, for the bad lighting of the pictures, but of course we did this project when it was dark and light was not great :)